It’s been a bit of a while since I’ve posted about my chickens. They’re a pretty big part of my life, so it just seems that I should be posting about them more often.

I remember long long before I had chickens, or ever dreamed of having chickens, or ever even lived on a ranch, that I once read this blog post about some lady’s chickens. They all had names and she described all their personalities. I was like whaaaaa craaazzzyyy.
Fast forward a few years, one marriage, one moving to a ranch, and about 50 chickens later, and you’ve got me.

not all my chickens have names. Of the 25 layers I have, I’d say 15 have “names” but aren’t necessarily called it, like ever. My little 4 year old niece also loves the chickens so maybe i’ll just say that it was Her idea to name them…..

annyyywaayyys. It’s gorgeous spring down here in Montana. The chickens are just looovvinnngg it. I let them out of their coop in the morning and by the time I get back in my house they’re scattered in 25 direction busily doing their chicken duties. They’ve been laying like {almost} champs, averaging about 16 eggs a day. Out of 25 layers. Not too bad.

they’ve been getting fairly tame with me. I only had a handful who would let me catch them, consistently. I’ve noticed lately that there’s a few more who do the squat and let me pick them up. Naturally this calls for a photo of the bonding moment.

So those above points is what allows a whole blog post to be devoted to chickens and their personalities. Contain your jealousy over the friendship of me and my chickens, and learn about my feathered friends below.

This is one of my 7 ameraucana I have. I call her Rhonda. She is very gentle and has a lovely beard in the works. She hasn’t had a tail feather for what seems like forever, but that doesn’t stop her from pushing a gorgeous blue egg.

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I have 3 silkie hens..these two below and a yellow/orange one who has recently left her looonngg, unsuccessful maternity leave so would rather be exploring rather than posing for photos. They have higher pitched squawks and are just too cute not to have around! They lay teeny little white/cream eggs which Jed says he hates, but their yolk is just as big as a ‘normal’ egg, so Jed eats them anyways.

Kerflita

and brown silkie, no namer ha!

And Nosy Nancy. The most favourited hen of all. I believe she is an ‘assorted rock’ breed of some sort.. She will find me across the lot and waddle herself all the way to me, just so I can hold her for a bit. She doesn’t always let Jed hold her; just me. She went broody last summer and hatched out one little chick who randomly disappeared. I was SO excited that she of all hens went broody! Such an awesome mama hen she was! She’s just a nice little hen. She lays nice brown eggs.

And Red. Oh Red. She’s a Rhode Island Red and most definitely the oddest hen around! She’s friends with Nosy Nancy, so Nosy has taught her how to be a friendly hen. That she is. If the shop door gets left open, I swear she has another sense for that, even if she’s across the lot. She will go in that shop door, wander the shop, peck at any produce I may have on my table, go check out Jed’s work bench, go find her favourite box, in the middle of crap, on top of a table, with stuff ALL around it, the box filled with old wires and such, with stuff piled on top, and lay an egg there. She’s only laid one egg there that we know, but we’ve kicked her out mannnyy of times, just like we kick her outta the shop but can hardly get that door closed fast enough before she’s back in. Earlier this winter she managed to snag a ride on the back of the feed truck down to the creek! She’s just one oddddd chicken. She also lays brown eggs.
This one with the impressive comb is an Ancona. It’s a layer of white eggs. I have two in this breed and believe they are 2 of the 3 white egg layers I have! This breed is fairly flighty it has seemed, but this was the first time it let me carry her. So I obviously had to photograph the moment. They’re also bad. This one, (or the other one, I don’t know the difference) once pecked my hand and punctured the skin. That was the only hen who’s ever done that to me. They will be laying in the nesting box (instead of the roost), see me come in to lock them up, hop out of the box, I leave, and as I turn away they hop back into the box. Sly dirty things.

This black eyed chicken is a silver spangled hamburg. It can fly like a bird, (chickens sorta really suck at flying) like realllly good but has recently become friendly. It’s a smallish hen, with black polka dots on her white feathers and a funny pointy little comb! She has a sweet tail which i’ll likely never get a good picture of because chickens are always busy creatures! She lays a white/light pink egg I think.

And this is just a fraction of my chickens…. just the randoms who have been semi friendly the last few months.
I feel like a total crazy person posting personality descriptions of my CHICKENS. my chickens. But. I also think that anyone else who has chickens will get this. You’ll get me. (At least I hope so. Or if not, just fake it.). Because chickens really do have personalities. And its not just me who sees it. My father in law knows who Red is. Ok, maybe that’s because she’s hopped up on top of the feed truck and pooped on the hood. Or left her remnants in his shop. Or snagged a ride down to the creek with him….

Just get chickens so you can relate and so I don’t look and sound crazy.
Ok. Thanks.

I’m getting a milk cow. And I am beyond excited for her! The problem however, is that she is just not quite two weeks old. And she won’t be lactating until she’s 2 years old. Sooooo I’ve got 2 years to wait before I can begin milking her. I’ve already started pinteresting milk cow related blogs and dreaming about all the fresh milk recipes . Ugh!!

My father in law AI’d (artificially inseminated) one of the cows to a Brown Swiss this past May. AI-ing is never a 100% guarantee that the cow got pregnant. Their cycle has to be in complete sync, the semen used has to be good, etc etc. Same as when humans do the in vitro pregnancy, (or whatever it’s called). Anyways, my point is, just because this cow was bred to a milk cow, doesn’t mean it’ll get pregnant by it!(vs the clean up Bulls). So we passed that “IF”. But then there was the chance it was a bull calf and not a heifer. Well, lucky for me, she got pregnant with brown Swiss semen AND she had a heifer calf! (They say that the AI-ing has a 60% success rate. And then there’s the 50-50% chance it’ll be a heifer calf. So basically, I had a 30% chance of getting my milk cow!) The amount of excitement I had/still have for this future with my milk cow will just drive jed nuts haha!!

Meet Daisy! I had trouble settling for a name for her. It helped that the name had to be short enough to fit on an ear tag. I had once wanted to name my kid Daisy, had a Daisy themed room as a kid, and daisies are simply my *favourite* or always loving flower. So it just seemed fitting to name my milk cow Daisy! Jed even drew a Daisy on her ear tag. I’m writing this from my phone and it’s automatically capitalizing the d of Daisy. My phone gets that it’s not just a flower but name. I like that.

She’s brown, has a special teal/turquoise ear tag with a name and not a number. She is already special! Now to have the next two years fly by!